Champs Sports and Eastbay are expanding their relationship to better serve high school athletes both on and off the field.
Up until now, the two divisions of Foot Locker Inc. have been operated separately, but they are now being brought together under the Champs Sports x Eastbay name. Champs Sports operates more than 500 brick-and-mortar stores in the U.S. and Canada as well as an e-commerce site and focuses almost exclusively on lifestyle product for young athletes. Eastbay is an e-commerce-only business that sells technical product under its own name as well as from top brands such as Nike, Adidas, Asics, Under Armour and others.
Guy Harkless, senior vice president and general manager of Champs Sports and Eastbay, explained that the two companies both target the “sports-obsessed high school athlete. So joining the two businesses will offer a better overall experience.”
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At the end of September, the companies revealed they were launching a new private label, Eastbay Performance, that would be sold at both nameplates, and named Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts as its first brand ambassador. The line, which is focused on compression tops, tanks and tights; training T-shirts, jackets and shorts, as well as fleece pants and hoodies, launched on Oct. 4. It is available only at Eastbay, Champs Sports and Foot Locker.
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In January, the Champs Sports store in Oakbrook, Ill., opened the first Eastbay in-store shop as part of a new Community Store concept. That marked Eastbay’s first brick-and-mortar presence. It is 1,200 square feet and includes women’s and children’s product along with men’s wear, which represents the largest part of the assortment.
Harkless said compression products, as well as women’s wear, have been among the best performers for Eastbay in the Oakbrook store from both national and private brands. And for the Eastbay branded product, it’s compression and base layers that have proven the most popular. “The Eastbay private label has been a shining light,” he said.
Even so, Harkless wouldn’t provide a projection for how large the private label can ultimately become for the company, saying only that it has “a pretty big upside. The performance side is a pretty significant part of the industry.”
In addition to increasing sales of performance product, the Eastbay brand also helps boost business in adjacent categories such as health and wellness products, he said. And it has also helped the company learn about local high school teams and athletes that should help boost sales in the future. “It’s a great opportunity to connect to high school teams in one integrated experience,” he said.
Harkless said the Oakbrook store has been one of the most successful for the company since its debut and will be replicated when another store opens in Florida in January 2022. The 35,000-square-foot location in Pembroke Pines will be the largest Champs store in the world, he said, and will include the second Eastbay shop.
Harkless said that because the average size of a Champs store is 5,500 square feet, there are no plans to retrofit existing units to add Eastbay shops. But new stores will most likely offer the concept.
“We want to get the first few under our belt and see how they perform,” he said. “But we have a good degree of confidence.”
To publicize the enhanced partnership, Champs Sports x Eastbay is teaming up with Uninterrupted, the athlete empowerment platform created by LeBron James and Maverick Carter, on an apparel collection called More Than an Athlete. The line, which will include both performance and lifestyle product, will launch on Dec. 1. There will also be a content series.
The first of three drops will feature product centered around basketball and will include hoodies, T-shirts, joggers and compression pieces, as well as accessories such as socks, beanies and arm sleeves. The next two collections will focus baseball and football and will be released throughout 2022.
Starting on Nov. 22, More Than an Athlete Hotline: Varsity Edition will launch on Uninterrupted’s YouTube channel. It will feature hosts Deestroying and Sedona, who will be joined by two young basketball stars: UCLA’s Johnny Juzang and Sierra Canyon High School’s Amari Bailey, who will discuss the new era of name, image and likeness, or NIL, deals.
New episodes will be offered monthly and each episode will feature an athlete of the month from various high schools and across a variety of sports who will be chosen because they exemplify the More Than an Athlete spirit.
“Uninterrupted’s ‘More Than an Athlete’ line and content series perfectly align with our brand philosophy,” Harkless said. “With Champs Sports x Eastbay, our goal is to provide young athletes with the tools they need to be successful, and MTAA provides those same athletes with a space to connect with others and learn from their experiences. Together, we hope to support these athletes as they continue to make a name for themselves on and off the field.”
Devin Johnson, chief operating officer of The Springhill Company, parent of Uninterrupted, said the partnership with Champs and Eastbay will allow the company “the opportunity to connect with younger athletes through both content and commerce levers. We also want to communicate to all athletes, especially younger ones, that they have the ability to see growth in their becoming, both on and off the court or field.”